Gryphon women secure first in OUA West
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons clinched a first-place finish in the OUA women’s hockey league’s West Division Friday at the Gryphon Centre with their 13th consecutive victory.
The third-ranked Gryphs rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to slip by the Queen’s Gaels 3-2 for their 21st victory in league play this season. Of those 21 wins, 18 have been in regulation time.
Hannah Tait’s second goal of the game, this one on a power play with 2:52 to go in the third, gave the Gryphs the victory.
Tait’s other goal came in the second period while Maya Graham scored in the first, just less than five minutes after Queen’s had scored its second goal of the game.
Sylvie-Ann Miller, Teghan MacRae and Katherine Heard each had an assist for the Gryphs.
Alyson Reeves scored goals three minutes apart for the Gaels midway through the first while Sara Di Filippo assisted on both. Mikayla Cranney had one assist.
The Gryphs outshot the Gaels 30-18 including a 21-8 advantage after the first period.
Sophie Helfenstein had 16 saves for the Gryphs and Emma Tennant had 27 for Queen’s
The Gryphs were 1-for-4 on their power play while the Gaels were scoreless on their lone power play.
The game was the 12th league game for the Gryphs this season that finished with a single-goal margin and their 10th win in those close games.
Guelph leads the OUA West at 18-3-2-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and are followed by the Waterloo Warriors (12-3-2-6), Laurier Golden Hawks (8-3-3-9), Windsor Lancers (7-1-5-10), Brock Badgers (7-1-4-10) and Western Mustangs (5-4-3-10).
Queen’s is third in the OUA East at 9-3-0-11. Nipissing Lakers lead at 15-5-1-3 and Toronto Varsity Blues are second at 14-1-1-6.
The Gryphs have four games remaining on their regular-season schedule. They’re to play Brock at St. Catharines Thursday at 6 p.m. and Western at London next Saturday at 7 p.m. The Gryphs are to close out their regular season with games at the Gryphon Centre Feb. 16 and 17 against Windsor. Both carry 7:30 p.m. game times.
- Guelph Sports Journal